First the news: Former governor general Adrienne Clarkson has trashed constitutional convention by writing about conversations she had with Canada’s prime ministers while all the actors and issues were still close to the stage. This is not a minor thing. For the sake of a few titillating paragraphs in her 257-page autobiography, Heart Matters, she may have irreparably destroyed the special relationship the governor general has with the leader of the government.
In Canada’s constitutional arrangements, the Queen and her vice-regal representative—the governor general—have an established and important role to advise, warn and encourage ministers and in turn to be consulted by them. What prime ministers in future will trust a governor general with matters of confidence if they fear the governor general, the moment she or he leaves office, will write some chapter in a book about what was discussed? Without that trust, without that special relationship between...
Michael Valpy is a journalist and author. Through a long career at The Globe and Mail, he served as foreign correspondent, national political columnist, member of the editorial board, and deputy managing editor before leaving to teach in 2010.
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